Comments on: News: Ubiquitous Stupidity

By: DiceAdmiral

DiceAdmiral — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 16:00:15 +0000

Fair enough. It’s your site, you make the rules.

By: Lusipurr

Lusipurr — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 00:13:51 +0000

@DiceAdmiral: I do not expect and will not require my staff to adjust the tenor of their posts for the sake of variety or to suit the momentary desires of individual readers, nor would I be very pleased if my staff started doing that of their own volition.

People expect consistency of tone from journalistic enterprises. If you aren’t happy with that, then, as I suggested before, you can always look somewhere else to find what you desire, and we’ll still be here when you click back over. There are lots of different news websites in the world precisely for the reason that people have many different tastes and expectations. That’s as it should be!

If you want generally positive write-ups of everything, IGN will get you sorted. They do a great job of presenting the news in a way which is fairly affirmative on the whole.

By: SiliconNooB

SiliconNooB — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 00:02:16 +0000

Hey, perhaps you could start writing a super positive Newsblast, DiceAdmiral!

By: DiceAdmiral

DiceAdmiral — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 19:13:49 +0000

I’m not just saying spout off press releases. I’m saying that finding dumb things in the industry to call out isn’t all that difficult, (though that’s not saying that the coverage of it here isn’t interesting, because it is) but finding interesting, positive stories from the industry is difficult and not something that one finds on “every other site”. There’s been a misunderstanding here. I’m not saying I’m bored of bad news, I’m saying that compelling writing covering positive stories is hard to find and the writers at this site are capable of producing it if they choose. I’ve issued this request not as a complaint against the material that has been presented, but as a challenge to the staff here. If you really believe that this is something that I can find super easily on another site and not just be inundated with PR rehash garbage then I’d love to be linked to that site.

By: Lusipurr

Lusipurr — Thu, 16 Oct 2014 16:24:44 +0000

I don’t really see a need to focus on the same things as nearly every other site. There are a bajillion news sites out there that will give you unvarnished PR e-mails and talk up even the most fetid of turds into a chocolate mousse.

If you’d like to see something different, why not just go to another site and look at it? We’ll still be here when you flip back. But it doesn’t make much sense to suggest that we should just do what other sites do for the sake of variety (an illusory virtue to say the least). After all, would you call up the Country Music station and ask them to play some modern R&B for the sake of variety? There are plenty of other stations that already do that, and that sort of programming really isn’t in the Country channel’s purview anyway.

Similarly, we’re here to tell the straight, harsh truth. Naturally, it’s a bit grim–but, then, that’s the world in which we live. There are plenty of other places to check if you want something else.

By: DiceAdmiral

DiceAdmiral — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 22:03:29 +0000

I’m not disagreeing, I’d just like to see one week of something different.

By: Wolfe

Wolfe — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 20:38:45 +0000

@Dice: I get what you mean. But really, I think Julian does the most needed job in gaming journalism right now. Correcting PR doublespeak, calling out never-ending developer bullshit and mockingly demanding accountability. He’s essentially what Jim Sterling pretends to be.

By: DiceAdmiral

DiceAdmiral — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 15:11:34 +0000

@Wolfe: Interesting was bad word choice.
@SN: That’s why it’s a challenge. If it were easy, there would be little point in asking.

By: SiliconNooB

SiliconNooB — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 10:06:33 +0000

I don’t know that it would be possible unless I just make stuff up.

I could announce Chrono Trigger 2 in this week’s news post, but something like that seems more apt to April 1st’s newscycle…

By: Mel

Mel — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 08:15:46 +0000

SN does tend to cover the gloomier side of the industry. Maybe it’s just a gloomy industry. Maybe SN is just a gloomy guss.

By: Wolfe

Wolfe — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 03:14:11 +0000

In what world are these posts not interesting? I can go to any site for PR shill bullshit. I come here for the straight talk.

By: Gyme

Gyme — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 03:02:49 +0000

@DiceAdmiral So basically you’re suggesting Noob takes a week off?

By: DiceAdmiral

DiceAdmiral — Mon, 13 Oct 2014 02:34:17 +0000

@SN: While I enjoy your weekly ridiculing of the industry I would like to offer you a challenge. For at least one week, fill your post with interesting, fun or exciting things that are happening in the video games industry.

By: Lusipurr

Lusipurr — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 23:47:33 +0000

By: Wolfe

Wolfe — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 21:52:11 +0000

God I hate Tim Schafer. Absolutely cannot stand him. The fact that chumps like him and Richard Garriot can show up and have money thrown at them just baffles and irritates me. Let it be known that I am interested in Shroud of the Avatar, but I don’t spend a single cent on any Kickstarter anywhere, no matter how interested I may be in the product.

And again. Tim Schafer is a tool who can’t be chased out of the industry fast enough for my tastes.

By: SiliconNooB

SiliconNooB — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 18:58:43 +0000

It seems to me to be the logical answer, and it is also what Digital Foundry assumed. Naughty Dog have obviously indicated otherwise, but as we all know developers can lie. 60fps was one of their big features, so they don’t want to have to say “we also included a 30fps option because we couldn’t keep a consistent 60fps”.

By: Ethos

Ethos — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 18:47:12 +0000

@SN – I got the impression from reading interviews that they had the option for purists who may have believed that 30fps would be better, but I’d trust your research over mine on this.

By: Mel

Mel — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 18:11:45 +0000

Higher frame rates can have a negative impact on set design and other special effects in movies and TV shows, as people with properly working eyeballs can attest. There has been a lot of discussion about this in the movie industry. Videogames, however, have always benefited from increased frame rates in part because some games simply require frame-perfect control from the player. To piggyback onto the “cinematic” argument in movies is just weak PR spin.

By: SiliconNooB

SiliconNooB — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 17:49:13 +0000

The only reason that Naughty Dog provided a 30fps option was because the game wasn’t locked at a rocksolid 60fps, rather it fluctuated between 50-60fps. If they could have ensured a constant 60fps then the 30fps option would not have been there, but some people really hate an unsteady framerate, so hooray for choice!

I’d always opt for more frames over less.

By: Ethos

Ethos — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 17:42:11 +0000

Or, as Naughty Dog has already shown to be possible, provide a 30fps option if you must. I was a little worried about the “soap opera effect” with 60fps that happens with TV smoothing (I know it’s not the same thing), but it was just better than 30fps. The confidence with which Ubisoft spouts complete gibberish is almost impressive.

By: Lusipurr

Lusipurr — Fri, 10 Oct 2014 17:41:15 +0000

What is not acceptable is for those same clowns to tell very obvious falsehoods to the gaming community, essentially treating their audience as fools. Games will always look and feel better when running in excess of 60fps – to argue otherwise is simply downright bizarre.

Not bizarre–false. This is a baldfaced lie meant solely to cover them from criticism.

Ubisoft is a cesspit, and the people who work there have no compunctions whatsoever about lying to their customers.